Julio Jones just may be the reason the Falcons didn’t eat crow at Monday night’s opening game. The Falcons said they were going to be eating Eagles for dinner at the season opener; and though it looked a little bleak at the end (let’s just say they didn’t have duck or crow). The Eagles seemed to be making a comeback during the second half of the game but there was just one problem.
Chip Kelly and his coaching staff could not mastermind a plan for his defense to stop Julio Jones. When asked about the Eagles’ defense against Julio Jones, Kelly said the following:
“The plan with dealing with Julio is very difficult because he lines up in so many different spots. If you try to double him, where is he going to be? He’s going to be the outside right receiver, he’s going to be the outside left receiver, he’s going to be the second receiver, maybe inside third receiver. Then he’s going to go in motion. So, we had some doubles on him, had some safeties leaning towards him. In the first half a couple of those plays he got, two of the plays were slants off of the run game where it was a designed run (but) Matt pulled up and fired the ball backside. We had press coverage on him but he got inside leverage.”
However, the Eagles received credit for one sack and three quarterback hits in Monday night’s game. The Falcon’s #1 priority was to protect Matt Ryan and they did a decent job overall against a defensive Eagles lineup.
The question remains: in the last quarter of the game, could Chip Kelly’s field goal indecision, brief hesitation and refusal to call a timeout likely cost his team a one-point lead and the victory of winning the season opener game that may have accompanied it?
Check out the photos after the break.
